Twenty monks and one nun, who was named Eshun, were practicing meditation with a certain Zen master.
Eshun was very pretty even though her head was shaved and her dress plain. Several monks secretly fell in love with her. One of them wrote...
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THE NIGHT INTERVIEW OF THE NUN MYOTEI
Myotei was a widow and a woman well known for her strength of character. She trained for some years under Kimon, the 150th Master of Enkakuji temple [in Japan]; on a chance to visit the temple she had an experience while listening to a sermon by him on the Diamond Sutra. In the year 1568, she took part in the Rohatsu training week. [This is the most severe training week of the year; it is at the beginning of December, when according to tradition the Buddha meditated six days and nights, then looked at the morning star and attained the full realization. There is almost continuous meditation broken only by interviews with the teacher, sutra chanting, meals and tea; this goes on for a week, with very little or no sleep according to the temple. On the morning after the last night's meditation and interviews the participantslook together the morning star.]

Before one of the night interviews, she took off her robes and came in without anything at all. She lay down before the teacher, who picked up the iron nyo-i [ceremonial stick] and thrust it out towards her thighs, saying: -What trick is this? The nun said: -I present the gate by which all the Buddhas of the three realms come into this world. The teacher said: -Unless the Buddhas of the three realms go in, they cannot come out. Let the gate be enteredhere and now. And he sat astride the nun. She demanded: -He who should enter, what Buddha is that? The teacher said: -What is to be from the beginning has no "should" about it. The nun said: -He who does not give his name is a barbarian brigand, who is not allowed to enter. The teacher said: -Maitreya Buddha, who was to be born to save people after the death of Shakyamuni Buddha, enters the gate. The nun made as if to speak and the teacher quickly cover her mouth. He pressed the iron stick between her thighs, saying: -Maitreya Buddha enters the gate. Give birth this instant. The nun hesitated, and the teacher said: -This is not true womb; how could this give birth to Maitreya? The nun went out, and at the interview the next morning, the teacher said: -Have you given birth to Maitreya? The nun cried out with great force: -He was born quietly last night. She caught hold of the teacher and put her hands round the top of his head, saying: -I invite the Buddha to take the top of this head as the Lion Throne. Let him graciously preach a sermon from it. The teacher said: -The way is one alone, not two, not three. The nun said: -In their abilities, the beings differ in ten thousand ways. How should you stick them to one way. The teacher said: -One general at the head of ten thousand men enters the capital.

Edited by Trevor Leggett

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